2023-05-31T1825H UTC+8: Muslim Democracy vs Political Islam

For quite sometime since I became a Muslim in January 9th of 2022, I vouched for a Muslim Democracy in terms of my political stand but now I am starting to understand why Political Islam should be the choice for the Umma.

In the past Islamism has been interchangeably used with Political Islam but modern views are trying to demarcate between the two and probably to distance from the infamous connotation that is associated with a small percentage of Islamism groups due to the use of violence.

Basically I am starting to understand that the Sharia law must be the central legal and jurisprudence guiding a Muslim society and that no person should exercise authority over another since authority over the Muslim people are only exercised by Allah (SWT) which is not possible for a Muslim democracy.

I still remember the debate I had with a woman Imam on some virtual world and back then I was indifferent towards Islam and Muslims in general because of the bad representation from the terror attacks around the world during the time of Osama Bin Laden. One of the significant points the Imam made during our debate was the eroding morality of societies due to western views and indeed she was very much on point about this.

Apart from that debate the most recent realization that made me change my political stand to let go of the Muslim Democracy and adhere to Political Islam is the mismatch of the secular world to Islam practices. For instance a busy life of a Muslim engineer will make it difficult to provision for his visit to join the congregation at a Mosque during Jum'ah. Even the 5 Salah daily will put the Muslim individual into a marginalized group amidst the secular society.

I think it is logical and just to advocate for Political Islam and dream of a Sharia Law centered society.